IF THIS HOUSE COULD TALK... Blog #4
Things started to change around here when Charles became engaged to Sylvia Broughten, and they planned to get married in the summer of 1876. He wanted to make his bachelor pad more comfortable and suitable for his bride, so he began planning my first addition. I was to have a parlor with a large portico to cover its entrance and that of the existing sitting room. There also would be a second story built over the parlor and sitting room. I would have a proper chamber for a husband and wife, as well as a little bedroom, perhaps for future guests or children.
Building my addition was a real juggling act because Charles was involved with planning and promoting the Kansas House at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. Most of the work on my addition was finished by January, 1876, but due to Charles’ extended absences from town in the six months proceeding his July 25th wedding, final details had to wait to be finished until the newlyweds returned from their honeymoon.
It was September 10 that Sylvia saw me, her new home, for the first time! When Charles and Sylvia returned to Marysville from the wedding trip on September 9, they immediately went to sister Jane Schmidt’s new brick house east of town. The next day, they visited Sylvia’s brother, John Broughten, and on their way stopped by here. “Home’ is seen for the first time by Sylvia!” Charles would write in his diary. “We walk through the House and the Keys are in her keeping.”
Sylvia and Charles stayed with Sister Jane until the finishing touches on me were completed.
